Letter: Lawmakers

By Martha Dzioba, New Bern

Published: Monday, February 11, 2013 at 11:34 AM.

AND, lastly, the N.C. House passed legislation to repay N.C.’s debt FASTER to the federal government — by raising employer taxes, cutting benefits by a third to our unemployed neighbors, reducing the term for benefit payments, and refusing benefits for those with small children who won’t leave them home alone to work the night shift. The problem? Is paying a debt faster a compelling moral reason to increase the chance that someone who has already lost a job will be evicted because he/she can’t meet the rent, have their children go hungry because food is unaffordable, do without heat or electricity, etc. etc.?

And then there’s the front page article about the bill to clean sweep many N.C. Commissions in an effort (the bill’s sponsor says) to “wield power.” One of the “power” actions will remove the requirement that members of the Coastal Resources Commission (a) not earn their income as developers of coastal land (no conflict of interest there!) and, (b) that members no longer need to live at or near the coast. A beach vacation counts?

The list of short-sighted, greedy, selfish laws working their way through our legislature goes on and on, but this letter is already too long. What kind of people are we in this great and beautiful state? If you and I don’t speak up, what will N.C. be for the next generation? And the one after that? How about we tell our elected officials what we expect of them and show we care about each other and our state, including our reputation as one of the fifty
United States
.

I just read the State Briefs news reports in the Feb. 6 Sun Journal. Taken together they provide an unflattering picture of our legislative priorities. Anyone who didn’t know that North Carolinians are responsible law-abiding citizens, that they care about their neighbors’ welfare, and that they deplore inappropriate application of laws, would think we have collectively lost our minds. Five articles plus one about the “unemployment debt fix” leave me wondering what our elected legislators really care about.

Consider: 1. Lawmakers introduced a bill to allow the Wildlife Commission to issue permits to hold wild animals captive for “scientific, educational, or exhibition purposes”. The problem? Not being able to continue a long New Year’s Eve tradition of trapping, caging and lowering an opossum at midnight. What high unemployment rate?

2. A legislator will introduce a bill to amend N.C.’s Constitution so that N.C. can “ignore any federal restrictions on gun access or ownership.” The problem? Who knows? Do legislators REALLY think amending the N.C. Constitution allows N.C. to defy federal law? If that’s so, why don’t they propose a constitutional amendment defying federal income tax laws? At least that would benefit a large number of our citizens. Sales tax on food?

3. An N.C. man is being charged with “sell and delivery of a counterfeit controlled substance” — a half-eaten chicken sandwich he said was marijuana. He’s also charged with “selling and delivering marijuana” for selling the same chicken sandwich. What? How can it be illegal to sell a chicken sandwich no matter WHAT you call it? Or be charged with selling marijuana if you didn’t? Is this the best we can do?

4. An N.C. man is in jail on his NINTH charge of drunk driving, after several convictions in various counties. The problem? Do our legislators think it’s OK for a man to be charged nine times and convicted several times of DWI and still be driving? Do they even notice such things? Does he have to run over someone’s child before enough is enough?

5. The N.C. Senate gave final approval to block N.C. government from complying with a health care law that would provide health insurance (NOT paid for by N.C.) to half a million uninsured North Carolinians. The problem? Half a million people will still have no health insurance. They get really sick and cost our hospitals immense sums, or visit emergency rooms at high cost for illness that could have been avoided by preventive health care. Do our legislators have a better plan — or ANY plan for health insurance?

AND, lastly, the N.C. House passed legislation to repay N.C.’s debt FASTER to the federal government — by raising employer taxes, cutting benefits by a third to our unemployed neighbors, reducing the term for benefit payments, and refusing benefits for those with small children who won’t leave them home alone to work the night shift. The problem? Is paying a debt faster a compelling moral reason to increase the chance that someone who has already lost a job will be evicted because he/she can’t meet the rent, have their children go hungry because food is unaffordable, do without heat or electricity, etc. etc.?

And then there’s the front page article about the bill to clean sweep many N.C. Commissions in an effort (the bill’s sponsor says) to “wield power.” One of the “power” actions will remove the requirement that members of the Coastal Resources Commission (a) not earn their income as developers of coastal land (no conflict of interest there!) and, (b) that members no longer need to live at or near the coast. A beach vacation counts?

The list of short-sighted, greedy, selfish laws working their way through our legislature goes on and on, but this letter is already too long. What kind of people are we in this great and beautiful state? If you and I don’t speak up, what will N.C. be for the next generation? And the one after that? How about we tell our elected officials what we expect of them and show we care about each other and our state, including our reputation as one of the fifty United States.